You may recall earlier in the year we reported the rather unwholesome story of lawsuits, disappearing money and such like. (for those that don’t : read it all here….)

Well today we can give an update to the story. Today, Monday 25th September the UK Insolvency Service announced that Dipak Rao has been banned from holding the position of company director after being found guilty of misappropriating at least £2m from the two companies responsible for the bulk of the back catalogue.

Dipak Rao, who worked for the band behind the hit Smoke on the Water between 1992 and 2014, has been disqualified for 11 years following an investigation by the Insolvency Service. It found he siphoned money into his personal accounts from two companies, Deep Purple (Overseas) Ltd and HEC Enterprises Ltd, between 2008 and 2014.

The 69-year-old, who lives in Worcester Park, south-west London, concealed what he had done by ensuring that the transactions did not appear in financial accounts and restricted access to the companies’ bank statements, the Insolvency Service said. He resigned in November 2014 as a director of both firms – which control the copyrights of many of the band’s recordings – before they went into administration in January last year.

Sue Macleod, the Insolvency Service’s chief investigator, said: “Rao misappropriated company funds, causing detriment to the company and its creditors, to his own personal benefit.”

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Posted by Stephen Graham on Monday, September 25th, 2017, filed under News. You can follow comment on this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Another band I follow, Jethro Tull has talked briefly about this sort of thing. I am Anderson and his wife have owned the rights to all things Jethro Tull. They have run the business end of the business themselves for over 40 years. They book all the shows, book transportation and lodging for the band and crew and pay the band members themselves. Ian has said that he actually enjoys doing it and it has allowed him to keep track of all the money.

So why isn’t this prick in jail? Since I’m an American I have no idea how much, £2m is but it looks like a lot of money. Hopefully the band will be able to recoup this amount plus more for whatever reasons the courts deem reasonable if they sue him in court which they should.

I don’t quite get the term “administration” as it’s used here .But I assume it means there is an appointee (s) who have to discover what and where this creeps assets are . If he’s in bankruptcy the rightful owners may not get everything they should .But I would hope there are still recoverable monies . Jon Lords heirs could really benefit .

Well friends…these things happen when you have bandmembers saying: “I dont get involved with business side of the band, I let other people take care of everything..” If Mick Jagger would have been in the band these things would never have happend…LOL